Upstate Pediatric Speech Therapy Services, Inc.

Comprehensive Speech Language Evaluation

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Methods of Evaluation

Comprehensive speech-language evaluations are procedures used to assess the articulation and language systems in childhood, delineating strengths, deficits, and potentially contributing factors for the communication impairment.

The assessment involves a thorough review of the case history by parental, important caregivers, and/or child report of areas of concern. Standardized and nonstandardized methods are used to observe and describe the childs or adolescents spoken language form. A childs phonological system, or sound system, may be analyzed. This would be the types of sounds he/she uses and how they are used relative to each other in a word. Spoken language may be assessed by evaluating the morphology of language or the small units of language. For example, as children learn to speak longer sentences, these include plurals, possessives, and verb tenses which change the meaning of the words. The syntax may be analyzed according to the types of sentences structure that is used. The meaning/vocabulary/content (semantics), and use (pragmatics) in varied communicative events may be assessed. These skills may be analyzed according to receptive language (comprehension) and/or expressive language (spoken language).

Other areas that may be assessed could be the articulatory system, or the motor speech output for the words the child uses. An oral-motor assessment may be utilized to supplement the articulatory assessment to determine if there are any structural or functional contributing factors to the articulation problem. Fluency, or the smooth flow of speech, may possibly be evaluated. Voice quality, pitch, and loudness will be observed.

If cognitive-communication impairments are suspected, then assessments of working and/or auditory memory may be done. These tests involve the ability to hold and manipulate information in mind for brief periods of time of ongoing mental activities. Specific tests to assess auditory perception/discrimination, linguistic/reading knowledge, and written expression may be done for comparisons.

After the evaluation is completed, interpretations are discussed with the parent and a written report summarizing the results is completed along with a treatment plan targeting specific areas of deficit as delineated during the evaluation.

Call the uPs Therapy Services office to schedule an evaluation at (864) 438-0990. Insurance is filed for most companies.